Gwynn: Embracing your inner nerd

Well...Let me start by saying you're trying. And that's a helluva lot more than I can say for others. I'll start by arguing with your definition from the revered dictionary. Classifying academics and intellectual pursuits is hit and miss. Sure, we all attend class, but at the very moment you're more invested in a relationship (any relationship, mind you) instead of your studies, you lose. It can't be that those studies are due, either. Imagine doing calculus out of the sheer joy of doing calculus. Or perhaps, writing incoherent thoughts down because you happen to love writing, not that your editor demands something to be put into the wonderful paper.

Keeping things like that in mind, there is a huge culture you're missing, either out of ignorance or sheer inept pursuit of a subculture. A self proclaimed "nerd" could be just anyone by the standards we've witnessed here. This is simply not the case. Almost as though you've seen way too much Big Bang Theory and have vicariously, placed yourself in an actor's shoes, when even they can't fulfill what it is to be a "nerd".

I find it very difficult to understand, of all the things you could've quoted, you chose Harry Potter and Star Wars. These are my biggest "nerd" follies for this article. Harry Potter was and is a good series, but everyone experienced Harry Potter, whether they did or didn't read the book/see the movie(s). And Star Wars...the one thing that George Lucas refuses to give as a reference in his creativity career.

This is to my brothers and sisters in the world outside of social normality, outside of creating new stereotypes: If I see you at Astro Kitty on a Friday night, and you definitely know why we're there on Friday night; If you have torrented versions of Josh Whedon's "Firefly", (why did they cancel it! F*@#); If you have a poster of Leonard Nimoy in your room (Hell, if you just know who he is to our culture); If the term "raid" means more than invading the refrigerator. This is for you guys! We are still the "nerds". We still live in a world undiscovered by those tossing around the words like "geek". We get to experience the havens of our M:tG collections, the friends we've never met through late night dungeon runs, the original D&D collectors, the hours of magnified painting for our Warhammer 3000 figures.

To those who are "Google-ing" these terms because you thought you were a nerd and are now open to a whole new world of possibilities, some of us just view you in rose colored glasses. We let you borrow all the terms you like because of the knowledge we possess. So yeah, be "nerds" if you must, but behind closed doors we are the fanatics, the grossly over obsessed, that you make fun of the rest of the year because we don't look the same. We are the outcasts.

Because it wouldn't be the same without us, just like Star Trek wasn't the same with Chris Pine.

"Live long, and prosper."

• Upvote 0
• Posted by fromashestoinfinity on February 2, 2012 at 10:44 a.m.
• permalink
• suggest removal

Gwynn: Embracing your inner nerd

Katherine, study the diagram below. Nerd implies high social awkwardness, probably even nearing the autistic spectrum. If you can make friends and converse normally, I’d say you’re probably closer to geek. And no offense, but your list of interests is a bit inane, landing in practically every crowded eddy in the dork mainstream, so you're skewing heavily towards the center of the diagram: a dork. The literature and medieval history are a bit more distinctive and intellectually respectable, i.e. towards geek/nerd.

The trends in our culture have usually been about aping authenticity, thus many people who label themselves with the authentically dysfunctional term “nerd” are usually either a bit too smart to be the bland “cool” but not quite intense enough to be geeks or nerds, and likely not so culturally hip and socially slick to be geeks. Thus, I think most of the people you’re talking about are on the smart end of the “dork” middle. At this point, the Midwest is mostly a sea of dweebs with the exception of college towns and major cities, which are islands of dorks and geeks. And, if you work at it, you might someday be an unimpeachable geek.

You’re welcome.

• Upvote 0
• Posted by fiddleback on February 2, 2012 at 1:50 p.m.
• permalink
• suggest removal

Gwynn: Embracing your inner nerd

http://geekwhisperin.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/geek-graph.jpg

• Upvote 0
• Posted by fiddleback on February 2, 2012 at 1:57 p.m.
• permalink
• suggest removal